The Cajun Navy – from flood relief to a bit of fun

Nick Padgnett finding new purpose in the playground // photo: Romero

August in Louisiana can usually be described using only two words: “Hot” and “Wet”. This year, the residents of Louisiana would probably use more explicit words in describing the past month.

The rain started late Thursday night on August 11th. What began as a typical summer storm surprised everyone and by the end of the deluge some areas reported as much as 32 inches of rain in a three day span. These unprecedented rains caused thousands to evacuate their homes and many of the guys in the pictures below spent days on boats and 4-wheelers evacuating people, cars, and belongings from houses that were flooded. Helping out your neighbors isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s a way of life here in Louisiana, and with everyone and everything around you underwater there was plenty of opportunities to help out. Countless sandbags were filled, but in some areas the water continued to rise for days after the rain slowed. Many residents resorted to using their own boats to help in the rescue efforts and were dubbed the “Cajun Navy” by national news outlets.

Thousands of houses ended up like this because of the historic rainfall and flooding // photo: Bellaire

Luke Romero takes on some bleacher seats // photo: Morrison

The historic floods were quickly followed by an equally historic demolition effort. Once the waters started to drop, the real work began. Cutting sheetrock, ripping up floors, removing cabinets, and throwing out furniture left the streets filled with piles of debris. It is truly a sad site to see all of someone’s possessions on the curb waiting for the trash man. As the clean up began to slow, a group of friends got together at a flooded playground in St. Martinsville, Louisiana to have a little fun. Since most of the streets were still flooded, we had free reign of the playground for days until the water receded. With two winches in tow, the group set out to do some shredding in a truly once in a lifetime spot. Despite all the devastation that had rolled through their home neighborhoods, the guys were able to find a reprieve from it all with some unique wakeboarding. Mother Nature can quickly remind us how insignificant something like wakeboarding is in the grand scheme of life, but it’s pretty cool when wakeboarding can be the silver lining following one of Mother Nature’s heavy reminders.

Yeah, but who won Tic-Tac-Toe? // rider: Keith Morrison // photo: Theriot

Usually grabbing some tail in the bleachers doesn’t look like this for Keith Morrison // photo: Padgnett

Batter up? // photo: Bellaire

Bleacher sliding with Nick Padgnett // photo: Bellaire